雨宮 蓮
The cocoon-looking object began to bubble and spin as if it had come to life. The head of a dark appendage crested from the smooth surface, as if it were growing limbs…
Joker realized the danger they were in too late.
His body had begun to move before his mind; Joker lunged at Narukami, a warning jumping on the tip of his tongue.
"Watch out!"
The amorphous limb, faster than he'd expected, erupted out from the sphere—it split through the dense air and hurtled towards Narukami's head. At the last second before impact, however, the tip of the appendage split apart to form finger-like digits that wrapped around his head like a web of tar.
Narukami's startled expression was consumed by the mass of sticky black fluid, all traces of stiff alarm in the man's posture going slack as he, presumably, lost consciousness. Somehow, though, he remained standing—whether by sheer willpower, or suspended by the now twitching cable connecting him to its host.
"Narukami!"
Joker started forward, lifting his dagger to cut him loose. But before he could get close enough, a sudden, powerful cloud of wind gushed forth from within the dark abyss. As the silvery gas billowed out into the street, Joker was hit with a wave of vertigo; his vision dimmed, and before he knew it he had been brought to his knees by an invisible weight pressing down on his shoulders.
He choked out, "What the—?"
"System error. System error," a mechanical voice blared out from his pocket. Joker could feel his phone vibrating at his hip, growing hot. "Rebooting…please stand by."
A deep, soul-wrenching groan echoed through the city, shaking it to its core. Lights flickered and choked out around them, drowning the once bright world in pitch black. Cold, thick air shuddered through his body and his nostrils filled with the bitter, sour stench of sulfur that burned at his lungs.
His surroundings began to blur into monochrome. The crimson of his gloves faded into gray, then black.
Get up, the voice in the back of his mind urged. Stand!
But its presence grew distant. Feeble blue flames licked at his fingertips, but its color was extinguished by the sheer pressure of whatever had taken breath in the earth below.
Another low, earth-shaking groan reverberated in his ears. The sound, he registered through a foggy brain, was coming from beneath him—it was coming from the "Aorta".
He heard the roar of thousands of whispers echoing under his palms, their words too jumbled to make out, and yet the sound filled him with dread all the same.
It was coming. Something was coming.
Ding!
The sound of his cell was disturbingly loud. Unaware of the coming danger, the voice said, "Restarting…systems online. We apologize for the inconvenience."
Then, as soon as it had come, the heaviness dissipated. Red and blue light blinked back on around them, banishing the absolute darkness that had surrounded them. The sensation of deafness in his ears and the cold blanket over his skin was gone, leaving Joker numb and gasping on the floor. He hadn't realized that he had been holding his breath the whole time, and now every frantic inhalation brought waves of oxygen-deprived dizziness over him.
His ears registered the fleshy pop and crack of shifting joints, and he looked up in time to see the dark mass of fluid slipping off of Narukami's face.
Joker staggered to his feet as Narukami slumped to the floor. The crumpled dark appendage retreated back into the smooth cocoon without so much as a ripple disturbing its immaculate form.
The orb of dark water, barely the size of a basketball, began to melt away in the same manner that it had appeared. Waves of black melted from its surface, dripping back down into the abyss, until it shrank to the size of a pea.
"Wait, you piece of—" Joker snarled as he raised his gun and took aim, but there was nothing left to shoot at but air. The last drop dissolved into the stream of cascading water, taking with it any hope of answers.
As the waters receded, the hole in the street began to mend itself. Pale blue threads stitched over the surface of the abyss, weaving together at a pace far faster than human hands could work, until the hole was all but completely sealed off.
Joker lowered his pistol, curses simmering over his lips, but stopped himself. He could save that for later, when his ally wasn't in dire need of aid, face-first in a pool of street muck.
He rushed to Narukami's side, lifting the unmoving man from where he lay in the shallow water. Words caught in his throat at the sight of him.
Narukami's eyes were wide open, his expression frozen in one of mild surprise. He didn't react when Joker shook him roughly. A quick examination of his head and neck revealed no visible signs of injury. His lips were slightly tinged blue, but the faint movement of his chest indicated that he still breathed.
"Narukami?"
To his disappointment, the man gave no indication that he'd heard him. Rather, his pupils were dilated as if he were still gazing into the darkness of the void, transfixed by something that lay thousands of miles off into the distance. Joker hesitantly brought a hand up and waved it over his face, though it did little to break Narukami out of whatever spell had frozen him in time and place.
"Narukami…Narukami! Get a hold of yourself," Joker hissed, feeling a faint lump of panic lodging itself in his chest. As he held the unresponsive man up in his arms, the image of Morgana's limp body lying helplessly on the floor of his bedroom once more seared itself in his mind.
This is…this is what happened to Morgana, isn't it?
Joker closed his eyes, struggling to remain composed.
No, this was surely different. Morgana had been, for a time, well enough that he could retreat back to the real world. Narukami, on the other hand, was locked in a catatonic state and seemed completely oblivious to the world around him.
Then what made this? What was that…creature? Most importantly, what did it to to—
Suddenly, Joker's phone let out an unfamiliar jingle. The sound was reminiscent of grating strings on a severely out of tune guitar, so much so that Joker could hardly make out the notes over the twanging strings.
He winced at the unwelcome sound, already dreading what new bad news was waiting for him. Joker didn't need to wait long for it to come, though, as the same mechanical voice crackled out of the speakers of his device:
"Data collection at 100%. Loading trial one. Do not turn off your device until download is complete. Please stand by…you will be transported shortly."
Alarm flared in Joker's body at the string of messages. Trial? What trial? And where was it going to transport them now? He glanced down at Narukami, who still lay unmoving against the floor. In this state?
"Narukami," he tried again, desperate. "Now is not the time for sleep!"
As he spoke, the floor around them began to shine pale blue. The air around them began to hum with energy and break apart into pixelated squares. Joker started to feel lightheaded; creeping across the surface of his skin was the distinct, uncomfortable sensation of prickling electricity and needles.
"Participants detected in an unauthorized zone. Transportation in progress. In the future, please refrain from entering prohibited areas."
"Get up already, for the love of—"
Blink!
Abruptly, as if someone had cut the cables to a television, everything went black.
鳴上悠
Yu had a dream of the first day at his old job.
When he entered the hall of his new office, he was greeted with the sight of a carefully prepared "Welcome Aboard!" package on his desk. It came with all items new employees needed for day-to-day operations(pens, a coffee mug, etc.) as well as a prettily wrapped basket of fruit and flowers.
All that, and…
"This is…?"
"Yours," came the reply. Yu turned, coming face to face with one bemused _(the person's face was blurry, as were all of his surroundings, but none of that concerned him at the moment). The newcomer smiled(probably) at his no doubt dazed expression, continuing, "In return for your cooperation, that is. We try to tailor it to everybody's individual preferences. It's not nearly as inconspicuous as what you're used to, but I promise that it will prove its worth when the time comes."
Yu cracked a small laugh at that. Thinking back to his high school days, he had to thank all of his lucky stars that nothing had hurt them badly enough to make them regret their choice of protective wear…or that their uniforms had never been torn apart beyond _'s capability to mend them.
"Of that I have no doubt."
They crossed their arms, appraising him with calculating eyes.
"You seem hesitant. Are you having second thoughts?"
"Second thoughts? No…nothing like that."
Yu paused, trying to make sense of the messy tangle of thoughts and emotions swirling around in his head.
"It's just that everything is so…different. You'd figure that I'd be used to it by now, but I can't help feeling a bit anxious."
"Not good with change, are you?"
Yu laughed. The sound was oddly muffled, a dull reverberation in his head. Water seeped into the office room, but there was no need for panic. _'s voice sounded distant and quiet.
"Life is never still, Narukami. It is the biggest storm we know, and it will never cease to move."
Something was off. The water level rose rapidly. Yu was suddenly up to his neck in clear, teal water, and even as it slipped over his nose and mouth he felt oddly calm. His toes lifted off the floor—he was floating, and yet he felt as if he were falling.
"Our environments, the beliefs we thought immutable, even the people we hold dear—they will all one day change, be challenged, vanish before our eyes. All we can do is be blown with the wind and make the best of where we end up."
Light dimmed and flickered. The scenery melted away, leaving only darkness and a voice, gentle.
"This is only the calm before the storm—a dreadful gale stirs beneath our very feet. You can feel it, can't you? There is no going back."
Yu was sinking into a deep, dark ocean. He wanted to curl up into a ball. To sleep, and wake to warmth.
"How long will you shut your eyes and ears to it? When the time calls for it, will you be able to take the next step forward?"
Yu didn't know how much time had passed since he blacked out, but when he came to he was no longer in the cyberworld—or at least the one that he had slowly become familiar with.
All was dim and shrouded in fog. He was lying on his back, staring blankly up at silver mist so dense that he began to feel suffocated. For a moment, Yu's heart jumped in his chest and his mind was transported back to his high school days.
The TV World?
He sat up slowly, wincing at a squeezing pain lingering behind his eyes when he moved. The dizziness and nausea from earlier had subsided perhaps as a result of sleep, but he couldn't decide whether the loss of the former was worth the confusion he was feeling now. Disoriented, Yu grimaced as he struggled to remember what had happened.
I must have been attacked, he reasoned, glancing around for clues. But where is this now? And what happened to Joker?
His cellphone buzzed in his pocket, startling him. Just as Yu pulled it out of his pocket, the device began to speak of its own accord:
"You have arrived at your destination. Trial one will soon commence. You will not be able to leave once the timer has started. When you are ready to begin, reply 'YES.'"
Yu frowned, wondering in the back of his mind if he was still dreaming. He stood shakily, lifting his device up in front of him. The screen was a window of pure white static, save for the small blue heart beating rhythmically at its center.
"Where am I?" Yu demanded, speaking to his phone as if it were another entity entirely—though at this point, he was halfway there to believing it might be. "Where's Ama—Joker? What do you mean by a trial?"
There was a moment of silence.
Then, crackling with static, the voice answered, "You are within the realm of Impulse VR. User Ren Amamiya is here as well. For the purposes of this trial, you were separated. I am unable to answer your last question."
Yu blinked, taken aback. A greater part of him had expected no response from the device, but he was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth. His mind raced as he scrambled to understand the logic behind the voice's response.
It appears willing to answer questions, but only according to a preset rule. How much more information can I get out of it, then?
Slowly, Yu asked, "Why were we brought here, suddenly?"
His phone chimed. "Enough data points were gathered on both subjects. Once all the data is initialized, the subjects are to be transported into Impulse VR to undergo appropriate trials. Side note: please do not interfere with the system while data is being gathered."
"Data points," Yu echoed, feeling a crawling sense of unease worming under his skin. "You've been watching us? Is that why you've downloaded yourself onto our devices?"
His phone dinged again. "Correct."
"And if we were to simply throw our phones out, or isolate ourselves?"
"Do not worry. The system will find you."
Yu didn't like the sound of that. "What are you?"
"I am Impulse VR's operating system."
"Who created you?"
This time, the phone vibrated and his screen flashed red. "I am unable to answer your question."
Yu licked his lips, which had become rather dry, and continued, "What is your purpose? Why are we being put through 'trials?'"
Bzzt. "I am unable to answer your question. I am unable to answer your question."
His fists clenched into tight balls. So it's unwilling—or maybe unable—to answer any of the important ones, huh? Yu thought for another few moments, then settled on a final inquiry.
"...Do you intend to harm us?"
The phone seemed to pause as if in thought, before answering, chillingly, "I am unable to answer your question."
Yup. Yu really didn't like the sound of that one.
"Trial set to commence shortly. Please reply 'YES' if you are ready."
From what he could gather, it seemed that Joker was probably stuck in the same situation he was in—all Yu could do now was pray for the Phantom Thief's safety. He took a look around at his foggy surroundings, half hoping that someone or something would magically appear and offer him aid or a way out.
Almost as if responding to his wishes, something silver flashed in the sky above him. Yu looked up, startled, as a heavy steel object materialized out of thin air and fell at his feet with a muted thud.
It was his briefcase.
"Please reply 'YES' if you are ready." Yu wasn't sure if he'd only imagined the impatience in the system's voice.
He cracked a weak smile and bent over to grab the case. Only one way but forward.
"Yes, I'm ready."
His words broke the spell of illusion; the fog dispersed, blown away by a formless wind, and then Yu heard it—felt it; something screeched from within the mist, echoing even in the open space around him with such ferocity that his very being trembled.
His phone pinged loudly. "Trial commenced. Time limit set to 24 hours. Good luck, User Yu Narukami."
"Wait, what's this about a time limit-"
The device fell silent in his hands as another ear-piercing cry split through the air. Whatever it was that soared above had found him—easily enough, Yu thought dryly as the fog cleared up and the area around him revealed itself.
He stood in an empty courtyard atop a massive skyscraper, surrounded by only glass, concrete, and open sky. Dark clouds churned overhead, and Yu could have sworn he'd seen the shadow of a massive creature darting up between the clouds. Now Yu wasn't afraid of heights, but even he felt his palms begin to sweat at the thought of falling over the edge of the roof.
"This isn't ideal." He knelt onto the floor, fingers thumbing at the clasps on his briefcase. Yu figured that he should be grateful that the system had been kind enough to return it to him. It popped open easily, as if it hadn't been left to gather dust in his closet for the last month.
Folded neatly into the velvety indigo fabric of the silver briefcase was a fairly ordinary-looking black blazer. The fabric shimmered like steel in the light, and there was, pinned to the left arm, a silver armband that read in bold black print: S.W. Yu remembered laughing a bit when it was first shown to him, holding it up in the light to examine it closer.
"This looks suspiciously similar to my uniform coat, don't you think?"
A chuckle and a knowing smile was all the response he'd got.
Yu pulled it on, already feeling waves of calm washing over him and settling his taut nerves. The jacket fit perfectly, even after all this time. He reached into the pockets and found a pair of leathery black gloves.
Sitting innocuously in another recess of the briefcase was a long, flat scabbard, wrapped with sturdy ivory linen. Dangling off the pommel was the wispy strands of a golden tassel, wrapped with thin red and white thread. On the side of the device was a groove where a barely noticeable switch was hidden.
A banshee's scream cut through the night storm, and Yu looked up just in time to see the flash of sharp talons cutting through the dark.
His fingers danced over the trigger. There was a clear pop as mechanical springs were released, then the sharp sound of something slicing through air—in the blink of an eye, unfolding from the handle sprang a gleaming silver blade. Measuring over two and a half feet long, the elegant sword curved in a deadly arc and gleamed as if it had just been recently oiled.
Not a moment too late, Yu raised his sword to guard as something large, heavy, and bloodthirsty clashed with his steel.
Towering over him was a massive, horrible bird-like beast with the withered head of a woman, its face partially covered by a nest of scraggly dark hair and an angry red mask that hung over its nose. A pair of muddy brown and black stained wings sprouted from bony shoulders set over a feathered torso, beating with loud whip-cracks over his head. Talons the size of his forearm gripped the blade of his weapon, skidding over the metal surface with incredible strength. The human head ill suited the twisted avian body it was stitched upon; it sneered at him, it's breath smelling of rotting flesh.
"I am Nicothoe, swiftest of the harpy sisters! I am the tempest—your god of storms does not scare me! Prepare to be ripped to shreds, human," it hissed in a language incomprehensible, yet somehow familiar to him.
Yu grimaced and swung his blade, pushing the creature off of him. The harpy took to the skies, cackling like a demon possessed.
Harpy. A half bird, half woman deity from Greek mythology, Yu's mind supplied, drawing from the veritable wellspring of random trivia he'd learned during his school days. Hounds of Zeus, the god of thunder. It's no wonder they're not fond of me.
Nicothoe dipped back into the swirling mass of clouds, veering back around in a sharp angle before diving back towards him with blinding speed.
She screeched, "Die!"
Yu raised his sword and shouted, "Izanagi, come!"
The tarot card shimmered in the air. The harpy met his blade midair as he split the card in two—Izanagi roared to life.
Granting him strength, the two moved in unison and carved an arc of ragged thunder into the sky with their blades. Electricity crackled with shining steel. Yu's fingers pricked from the intense voltage, even with his insulated gloves.
As the light faded, Yu spotted Nicothoe soaring back into the sky. She bared her teeth at Yu, mocking.
"Is that all, human? Your sword will never be faster than the wind!"
She spread her wings, unleashing howling zephyrs that lashed at him where he stood. Yu raised his arms to guard his eyes from the raging wind as it cut at his skin and tore at his clothes. He was never more grateful for the sturdiness of his jacket than then; the fabric held itself firm against the storm even as scratches peeled over his exposed cheek.
Izanagi leapt high into the sky, winding its arm back behind it before snapping its steel blade around in a vicious arc. The strike tore through layers of atmosphere and dissolved the clouds swirling around the arena, revealing nothing more of the sky than an even denser mass of cumulonimbus.
It began to drizzle.
For its size, the harpy was far more agile than he'd expected. It danced out of reach from Izanagi's blade, twisting and curling through the air with sickening grace. She battered Izanagi with her feathers and descended upon his persona in a fury of talons. Nicothoe met each of Izanagi's blows par for par, swinging back to scream in its face, before returning the assault with greater fervor.
Izanagi pushed the harpy off, raising it's blade into the sky. Threads of hot electricity crackled at the tip of the steel blade. In a blink of blinding white light, lightning bolted out from the storm of clouds above them and struck down at the creature. She was, however, already darting away.
Her feathers bristled with static; sensing the trajectory of energy, the harpy easily maneuvered around the attack.
Boom! Snap! Boom!
Strike after lightning strike rained from the dark heavens in hounded pursuit, but to little avail. Cackling like a witch, she disappeared into the cloaking mist of the clouds.
"She's fast," Yu muttered under his breath, wiping a trail of blood from his face. What he would give to grow wings, or at the very least switch Izanagi out for a persona who could meet her in the sky. Hell, he'd even take Joker's gun if it meant he could do something more than wait for her to dip down into reach.
Yu glanced around for trace signs of the masked beast, warily eyeing fast-moving dark shadows shifting behind the clouds.
Then he heard it—a blood-curdling squall that had all of his hairs stand on their ends. It was impossible to tell where the sound was coming from; the storm cell acted almost as a contained barrier from which noise reverberated and echoed disorientingly.
A massive shadow burst out of the clouds to his side. Yu raised his sword in response, willing Izanagi to the forefront to meet her head on. Upon colliding with Izanagi's blade, however, the dark figure evaporated into wisps of rain water, scattering cold droplets all over his skin.
A mirage?
Something split the air behind him, swift and silent as an owl. Yu whipped around just in time to see the sharp glint of daggers aimed for his eyes.
At the very last second, Yu dropped his weight and leaned back, twisting his body around to avoid a fatal blow to the skull. He bit back a gasp of pain as the creature's talon tore through his shirt and gored deep into his upper arm, piercing through layers of flesh and muscle.
His concentration broke and Izanagi's form wavered even as he ordered his persona to strike. His persona rushed forward, weapon raised, but Nicothoe once more took to the skies. Her hook-like claws dug into his shoulder, lifting him clean off the rooftop.
"Now fall!"
The weight of his own body pulled on his fresh wounds. Blazing hot agony seared up his arm and neck. She had him held tightly, and he was unable to move or swing his sword. She was going to drop him.
Vision blurring with red, Yu shouted hoarsely, "Izanagi!"
He registered the powerful crack of thunder overhead.
"Futile!"
Predictably, the harpy darted out of the way as a series of lightning strikes erupted from the sky in a zigzagging pattern. Every motion sent waves of nauseating pain pounding at his head.
There was a final rumble of thunder, and the creature banked a harsh left to avoid the incoming bolt. Except there was none this time—Izanagi reared back and threw his spear with such force that it sounded like lightning had descended. Air whistled and parted; Yu only saw the glint of silver metal as it hurtled through the darkness, and heard the accompanying scream of pain and anger by his ear as the projectile hit its mark.
Yu felt the vice grip on his arm loosen. Static crackled; Izanagi's form dissolved into particles of pure energy before shifting as fast as light to reunite with its weapon as it flew through the sky. His persona rematerialized overhead, raising its spear to slam it down on their foe with all of its might.
Nicothoe squawked as she was batted back down to the earth. Her claws released their hold, and Yu was assaulted by dizzying weightlessness, his body falling helplessly at gravity's mercy. Blinking stars from his eyes, he commanded his persona, "Come!"
Barely a heartbeat later, Yu felt Izanagi's hands gather him into the safe cradle of his arms. The persona landed heavily onto the rooftop just moments before Yu could flatten against the floor in a bloody pancake.
Adrenaline rushed through his body, numbing the near unbearable pain in his shoulder. Heat oozed from the wound and streamed down his arm in a river of crimson, gathering into beads at his fingertips. Wind rushed in his ears—he felt lightheaded, yet hyper focused at the same time.
It had been some time; he'd almost forgotten what it was like to dance with death.
Yu brought his good hand over his chest, feeling the rapid hammering of his heart under his fingertips. He closed his eyelids and sucked in a deep, calming breath.
"My thanks," he said, offering Izanagi a grateful nod. His persona's golden eyes regarded him silently from under its steel helm, an unspoken dialogue exchanged between the two.
Your gratitude is unnecessary. Our opponent still breathes.
Nicothoe righted herself midair, wings splaying out to slow her fall. Still, the harpy landed on her two feet, an impact crater bending the concrete roof beneath her. Izanagi's spear had cut a jagged gash through one of her wings where it met her bony shoulder. Black blood oozed from the cut, thick as mud. Aside from that and a few ruffled feathers, the creature seemed otherwise unharmed.
The harpy's face was twisted with rage. She opened her mouth and let out an ear-shattering caterwaul. "Such insolence! I'll kill you, you worthless worm!"
The creature lifted off the floor and raised her arms. A powerful vortex played at the tips of her wings, gathering wind at its apex.
Brace yourself!
Izanagi rushed in front of him just as a swirling twister manifested before their eyes. Howling gales like knives descended upon them, viscous and unrelenting. In a matter of seconds, they were surrounded. It was a miracle that Yu wasn't blown off of his feet.
Bearing the brunt of the storm, Izanagi was lashed to and fro. Sharp pain arced up and down Yu's body as his persona, unable to maintain its physical form, was torn apart by the furious tempest and faded into silver mist.
Just as the winds died down to a manageable level, Nicothoe cried out again. Her wings billowed out, and a hail of feathers as sharp as blades rained down from above.
Yu tossed his sword to his other arm, bringing it up and around him in a swift arc. He cut through one, deflected another, and grit his teeth as a third sliced through the fabric of his pants and the surface of his skin.
Nicothoe herself then swooped in to attack, crowing triumphantly. "You cannot win against me!"
Razor-like talons clashed against cold steel. It took all of his strength not to stumble against the weight of her blows, and every ounce of concentration to track her viper-quick movements. She doubled back in the sky, flapping her wings, and then brought her legs together in a powerful kick to his chest.
Yu raised his sword up diagonally over his torso, bracing both arms against it—even still, the strike sent him sliding backwards several feet, his heels digging into the ground. His bones creaked and his lungs could barely catch enough breath.
The harpy flew back up into the cover of the clouds, affording him a second to think.
I'm getting tired, fast. I can only summon Izanagi so many more times, before—
Out of the corner of his eye, Yu spotted the creature's shadow diving out from the sky. He gripped his sword tightly, sweat mixed with blood beading at his forehead and dripping into his eyes. Behind him, he felt wind brush against his hair, cool against his burning skin.
Not that one!
He spun around and slashed out in the complete opposite direction of the shadow. The steel blade met with resistance; Nicothoe screeched and pulled away as the sharp edge cut at her face.
"Enough of your illusions," Yu growled, stepping forward to deliver another strike. The harpy leapt out of reach, soaring back up high.
"How's this?"
This time, three blurred figures plunged out of the sea of dark clouds, all rushing at him with delighted screams.
Yu evaded the first, ducked under the second, and whirled around to bring his sword down on the third. All three dissolved into black fog before they hit him, however. The space around him shimmered, and Yu realized what was happening too late.
Nicothoe emerged out from thin air at his side, cloaking herself in mist, and lashed out. He hardly had time to move—fire hot pain erupted at his spine as her talons shredded into the skin of his back. Better that than his throat, Yu thought. In a final, desperate swing, he curved his sword around and fought her off of him before she could land another critical injury on him.
Her cruel laughter echoed in his ears as she once more hid in the clouds.
Blood splattered into a rapidly growing puddle at his heels. Yu staggered as his legs began to lose strength. He dug the tip of his blade into the ground, leaning against it for support. His uneven breaths sounded too loud in his ears, and he could feel every beat of his heart pounding against his skull. The rain came down harder, but it was still just a faint drizzle compared to the waterfall from before.
Yu wondered how Joker was faring in his trial, and if he too was on his last legs. He should have been terrified for his life, but the only thought running through the haze of delirium clouding his mind was, Well, I've just about had enough of this.
"I used to think you guys were complete opposites of each other," Chie had said once, some years back. She sat on a nearby park bench, watching on in unimpressed disappointment at Yu and Yosuke, the two of whom had busied themselves with catching bugs at the height of the summer heat. Yu, who started off in an attempt to get closer with the local kids, had somehow gotten deep into the hobby and on that day roped Yosuke into helping him search for rare beetles to trade with other enthusiasts for. Yosuke wasn't fond of bugs, but he had reluctantly agreed on the promise that Yu would help fill in at Junes while they were still short on hands.
As they spent the noon scouring the small park for beetles, the two had stumbled across something much worse.
"Oh shit, that's a hornet! Run!"
Some thirty minutes and a few hornet stings later, Yu and Yosuke emerged victorious, rare beetle tucked safely into their collection box only a few feet from where they'd slain the raging vespa. As the two gloated over their find, Chie sucked absentmindedly on a ice pop and shook her head.
"I always thought Yosuke was the stupid one. My eyes are opened: you guys are both reckless, airheaded bozos."
"Wait, why did you think I was the stupid one?"
"Does that even matter?"
Yu smiled, admiring the chromatic sheen on the beetle's armored shell. "Reckless, maybe," he admitted, gently patting Yosuke's shoulder. "But if the prize is worth the price, then I can be as idiotic as I need to be."
The harpy's scream broke Yu out of his reminiscence. Half a dozen shadows peeled out of the clouds, each shrieking vengefully as they dove down towards him. Even if he were to fight them all off, the beast was likely still lurking, hidden in the fog, waiting to strike when his back was turned.
Yu straightened, exhaling slowly. He centered his mind, pulling in scattered shards of focus towards the faintly glimmering core within him. Time seemed to slow, and Yu distinctly felt the presence of another breathing alongside him.
I probably don't have the strength to summon all of you, and though I may come to regret this, I hope you'll indulge me just this once. I could really use your help right now.
The bead of light shone a bit brighter in response.
Just this once.
Power surged in and around him, and a familiar blue tarot card materialized like a shining star in the dark.
The harpies screeched and the flow of time was restored. His fist closed around his trump card.
Yu looked up as blinding white light flooded the dark sky.
"Reveal yourself."
The shadow mirages drowned in the all encompassing light. One by one they burned away; snuffed candles, creatures of mere sound and fury, to be deceived by nor be heard from any longer. The brilliance began to fade, slowly, and the radiant figure hovering over him, barely holding form, lowered its arms.
"Thanks," Yu said.
Izanagi no Ookami offered him a slight nod, before vanishing entirely.
"What is this?" Nicothoe snarled. She hovered in the sky, no longer cloaked by mirages and vapor, bewildered. "What did you do to my magicks?"
"No more tricks," Yu asserted, raising his sword to the ready. "Let's finish this already."
The harpy curled her lip. "Fine then. I was getting tired of this game anyways!"
With a cry, she lifted her wings and unleashed another burst of powerful wind. It was easy enough for Yu to convincingly drop down to a knee as if he was completely spent. And to be fair, he was exhausted. Yu wasn't sure how much longer he'd last, bloody and ragged and all.
Gotta make this one count.
Nicothoe fell upon him in a flurry of feathers and blood. He saw her talons flash in the corner of his vision. Pain seared through his right shoulder as her sharp claws dug into his body; Yu bit his tongue, but couldn't help a agonized cry at the nerve-rending sensation of her cold daggers grinding against torn muscle and exposed bone.
Once more, she lifted off and when Yu managed to blink the splotches from his eyes, he looked down to see that his feet were dangling some several hundred feet above the rooftop. Wind rushed past his face as the harpy carried him higher and higher, where stronger rain pelted at his feverish skin, until his fall would no longer land him on the rooftop, but down into the dizzying spiral of lights below.
The long blade of his sword retracted back into its sheath. His arm slipped out from where it was barely covered by the sleeve of his jacket, which somehow didn't tear under her pull and his weight. Yu twirled the sheathed weapon in his hand and tossed it over to his free arm, dangling below him. The sharp edge whistled as it popped back out of its hilt, and Yu saw his chance.
"Got you," he hissed.
With all the strength he could muster, Yu reared his arm back and drove the tip of the sword deep into the harpy's back. Cold steel sunk into flesh, black blood burst from the wound; Nicothoe let out an awful howl that nearly burst his eardrums, and the two jolted unsteadily in the sky. He wasn't done though.
Changing his grip on the hilt, Yu leaned back and pulled down with all the weight in his body. His blade nicked against sturdy bones, tearing through fleshy ligament, and ripped through the socket binding wing to body.
Her wails grew more frantic and she began to flail around wildly to throw him off.
"That hurts," Nicothoe screamed. "THAT HURTS!"
The talons released him, but Yu's hands fisted around her feathery spine with persistence he didn't realize he could still muster. Yu didn't let go until they both started to fall—until her left wing was just barely attached to her torso by a single fiber of muscle—until he was certain she wouldn't be able to flee back into the clouds.
He wrenched his sword free and kicked off of the yowling creature's body, twisting around in the air until he could see safe ground. Yu was too far from the rooftop; he was hurtling straight down the side of the skyscraper towards his doom.
His head throbbed, and the open wounds scraped along his body burned icy cold in the howling wind. He should have been terrified. Maybe on a normal day, he would have been. But the fresh pain kept his head clear and his senses on alert.
He couldn't fail. Not again. Not so close to victory.
Sword clenched between his hands, Yu reached out and stabbed the blade into the nearest wall he could reach. He felt the tip of the weapon glance against a surface, but bounce off twice as violently from the speed of his fall. Yu grit his teeth, wrists and shoulders screaming in pain but miraculously still holding on, and summoned what strength he could.
Unaffected by the wind, a glowing blue arcana floated down overhead, illuminating his surroundings with faint light. He spun around and split the card in two with his sword, shouting, "Izanagi, come!"
His persona manifested, and Yu felt the gentle grasp of its large hand around his torso. Izanagi drove the spear tip of his weapon into glass windows of the skyscraper, deep. Their bodies jerked as their fall was met with dogged resistance, and he heard the hair-raising screech of metal tearing through glass.
As their fall began to slow, Yu saw a mass of feathers and bone swoop in beside them. Shrieking with guttural rage, the harpy slammed her talons in a cage around Yu's body, crushing him against the wall. Glass splintered and shattered around them in webs, and all the air was forcefully squeezed from his lungs.
Nicothoe clung to the steep building beside them, claws gripping at shattered glass for purchase.
"How DARE you!"
"Izanagi," Yu choked out, vision blurring.
His persona pushed against the harpy's claws, prying her weight off of them even as she pummeled them with her one good wing. The other flopped uselessly in the wind, casting black fluid and ruined feathers down into an endless fall.
"My WING! My precious wing! You'll pay for this with your life!"
As his persona locked in a death grapple with the beast, Yu mustered strength in his upper body and swung himself up onto the spear, balancing precariously on the blade as it jut out unevenly from the side of the tower. Yu wiped rainwater and blood from his eyes, gripping his sword with hands long gone numb. His feet were unsteady, he could barely stand straight, and he could hardly tell up from down.
"It's over," he said, more to himself than anyone else.
Yu leapt from the pole, landing square on Nicothoe's shoulders, and jammed his sword deep into her neck.
As if shocked by a jolt of electricity, the monster seized up. Her arms and legs curled into herself, and the expression on her face froze in one of surprise. A gurgling moan echoed from her exposed throat, and blood as black as night oozed from her lips.
"Mere…mortal-"
Before she could even finish her sentence, Nicothoe's whole body suddenly and unceremoniously dissolved into ashes. The dark particles were whisked away by the wind and rain, and Yu found that he no longer had a platform to stand upon, nor the strength to struggle further.
Izanagi, too, gave way to mist as Yu fell.
He fell dizzyingly far and surprisingly slow, as if he were sinking through honey—or maybe that was just his mind playing tricks on him. Tiny droplets of rain landed on his face, and when Yu opened his eyes he found himself staring up at that dark, cold vortex of clouds. Wind howled in his ears, and though the sound should not have been anywhere near as loud enough to be heard over it, Yu heard the distinct, now dreaded jingle of his phone chiming.
"Trial one complete. Transportation in progress…please stand by. "
Blue light surrounded his body, and his skin prickled with static.
For a moment, everything went dark, and Yu almost thought he might have blacked out again.
But when he blinked, he suddenly found himself sprawled on the street floor and met with a face full of pavement. Tall buildings with bright lights towered up around him, and he recognized the massive structure with the digital blue heart pumping inside of its LED screen.
I'm…back?
Still marveling at the fact that he'd somehow gotten out alive, Yu's dazed reverie was interrupted when his phone chimed once again.
"Congratulations, User Yu Narukami. One Tarot Point received."